you said that the president's strategy in these fiscal cliff negotiations is nothing but a power play, and in a previous column you actually used the words they want to humiliate the republicans. expand on that and explain that. >> well, you get the republicans the day after election day making good faith offers, boehner breaking with 20 years of tradition says we'll give you revenues, $800 million, and that's a real break for the republicans. that's a peace pipe. what does he get in return? the president sends the treasury secretary, geithner, to boehner and to mcconnell. he pockets the $800 billion. he double ths it and says i want 1.6 trillion. he demand not only no spending cuts of any importance but increased stimulus in spending which is preposterous when you're running trillion dollar deficit. and just to add insult, and here's the insult, he demands congress give up the power to control the deficit. that's obviously meanlt to humiliate the republicans. it's a non-starter. it's not acceptable. it's a way of saying to boehner you want to hand me your sword, you want to hand me y